Why 5?

Some wonder...why 5?

We get many questions, and one of the top questions at pretty much all of our stores is…

Although there is no definite ONE answer to this question, there are many reasons such as:

1. “The Number 4″
   The number “4″ is pronounced like the word “death” in Japanese, hence considered a bad luck number.The next question that follows is then, “Why not 6?”

   Answer to this part is: Even numbers such as 4, 6, 8 are divisible numbers. In Japanese the word “divide” is considered not good as well-especially in tableware-where the word “divide” (waru) also is the same pronunciation as “break”! In Japanese culture-it is always good to give a gift in odd numbers. So if you give someone 4 pieces of something-you usually say and add, “one more for good luck”.

2. “The Ideal Japanese Family”
   There is also a theory that the ideal Japanese family, consists of a dad, mom, son, daughter, and one more son.
3. “Another Theory…”
   Another theory that in Japan, (if you have ever been there) you will notice that many of the homes are not homes that can accomodate a “party” or entertainment at home like it is very common in the USA. There’s not enough space to accomodate for example 10 people in a house at a dinner table-much less room for 10 people’s worth of tableware either! Space is very limited, so you will rarely find Japanese tableware settings sold in such a large amount. Not to say they don’t exist - it’s just not common.

We hope that this makes sense!  And just a side note-if you only need 4 pieces, think of the 5th one as an “extra” in case one breaks!

Also, even in Japan, times are changing, and there are more and more places that are starting to make in sets of 4 also!

Tags: badluck, even, faq, japanese, odd, set, waru, why5

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under Q & A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.